Prison Hodgepodge

First off, let’s talk about how 40 years of solitary confinement is just too long. People left in solitary for that kind of time end up with serious physical and emotional problems. Unfortunately, it happens every day in America. National Geographic made a documentary on this problem that I found pretty helpful. You can watch it for free on Netflix.

Now while we’re on the subject of prisons sucking…

Nuns are having their body cavities searched?

I know you may expect me to be against this, but I understand the Supreme Court’s decision completely. When a nun protests by sitting in at an anti-war demonstration, she’s obviously doing it with hopes that she’ll be arrested so that she can smuggle drugs into whatever jail cell she ends up in at random. Like I’ve always said, the real crime problem in this country is clearly nun-related.

Prison reform is a human rights issue, no doubt about it. If you care about race relations in this country and the protection of civil liberties, you’ll demand a better system than this.

Speaking of terrible prisons – and ours really are terrible – it could still be worse. That’s why I’ll be attending a conference next Tuesday at the Peterson Institute for International Economics on the state of North Korea’s gulag system. We’ll hear from analysts, human rights workers, and a number of survivors about how these prisons function and the effect they have on the North Korean people.

I’ll be live tweeting portions of the event, so feel free to follow the discussion on Twitter via @jocastlemiller.

This weekend, whether you’re remembering the Hebrew people’s escape from another awful system, or the Son of God’s wrongful execution, or just planning to enjoy the weather, I hope it’s lovely.